We level up to LL2. I grab a second level of Metalmark; NLP acquires his second level of Pegasus.
Another tactical session with minimal investigation (once we wrapped up our downtimes) or RP.
Rewards and downtime:
Each of us gains a connection to Gold’s scavenger crew:
- can keep as a contact
- can burn it for a favor
The mechs we grounded in this reality after taking them down are now a reserve – potential research, etc.
I blow my roll for organization stability. We choose aggressive action. Envoy is interested in Task Group Brigand, but that would give him an in with us. We’re required to deploy them on the next op.
Ilias continues his work on the Umbra shard/casket we’ve acquired. I support (just talk to her… she’s a person, let’s treat her like one).
Echo makes the decoupling roll. The needles that were stuck into Umbra’s mind are drawn out so that just the tips are touching. It’s apparent that whatever or whoever forced this integration did not care about the trauma inflicted on the NHP or the uploaded remnants of Umbra. We get 1 tick on a 4-segment clock for the full decoupling.
I get us printer time for stealth hardsuits for TF Brigand.
Back to Tu’rosa, and we’re deploying groundside. Goals and stakes:
Explore the wasteland. Figure out what’s going on there. Can we locate and retrieve Boomer (Saif Stackpole)?
Official transport this time.
TG Brigand is happy with their new hardsuits.
We have a good fix on the location that was linking to the casket on Kharvek.
This area of Tu’rosa is a literal blasted desert wasteland. Sand, old eroded cities gone so far they aren’t even visible ruins. Elevated background count. Looks very similar to our opening scene, albeit without the wreckage.
(How did this happen? This was the one site of fighting that occurred in the system when the empire collapsed. Imperial military launched WMDs here. This was the imperial governor’s estates.)
TG Brigand mounts up with mag clamps, Battletech Elemental-style.
Our navigation is questionable. We can’t seem to hold a straight line. My enhanced sensors are getting the radiation; analysis indicates not just a high energetic release, but neutron activation in the area. Short half-life. Nav is partially confused until we realize what’s up, at which point I can focus down on it and get a true bearing.
As we close in, we begin hearing millions of screams in our minds. We both feel a shift before we detect it on our sensors. What was elevated background radiation spikes to dangerous levels (hardsuits and frames protect). Clouds of active nanotech weapons are drifting around the area, repurposing matter and breaking it down. This was once a city and its suburbs and outskirts, but it’s nearly unrecognizable now.
Voices: “I’ve felt you before. Why are you here? Come closer.” Speaking in Tu’rosan. I’m mentally translating with a little more proficiency than I should possess.
We don’t recognize the voice(s). Sense of presence to the west.
I do an intensive passive sensor sweep. Hottest areas located. Nanites are currently moving with the weather. Farther away, picking up signs of an active dimensional annihilation engine and a gate.
I set an alert to notify us if the nanites start moving in a way not consistent with local weather.
Something seems to be spinning up an EW attack.
The squad and I move out to cover the flanks. Echo spins up some ELINT. There’s some sort of VTOL frame orbiting the portal that we can now see.
“Why are you here? Speak!”
Echo picks up three frames on the enemy network. Clustered within 10 hexes of the gateway.
Confirming that the nanites were the weapons that destroyed this area. Led with a neutron bomb, then dropped nanite swarms for persistent area denial.
I move in obliquely. The VTOL picks me up and starts drifting in my direction.
Echo moves in, establishes more hacking. There’s a major bandwidth pipeline hitting something close to the gate – probably an NHP serving as router.
I become aware that Boomer is here.
I keep acting like a sensor ghost.
Echo picks up an indirect fire platform next to the gate. It’s getting telemetry from the VTOL, targeting an area to my north.
We draw in the VTOL for an ambush. It overflies me, attempts to bomb me; I evade. Echo’s heavy nexus swats it out of the air.
The artillery unit engages Echo. TG Brigand is narrowly outside the blast radius.
A visual distortion appears (or fails to appear) as a cloaked mech becomes a problem. It monowhips the hell out of Echo. Structure damage.